Thursday, June 4, 2009

I walked to Brazil...

Yesterday, I walked to Brazil it was really cool!Oh rewind...I am now in Ciudad de Este, I arrive the day before yesterday. I took a bus...it was a long day...6hrs but I got to see the middle of the country. Which is a lot like the middle of the US farms, cows, crops, green, and mostly flat. The main differece is the ground is red...like deep red clay.And not just the Amish drive horse drawn carts...People got on and off the bus sometimes in the middle of no where...I´m assuming someone was picking them up, in the middle of the road or something. I´m staying at this hotel called Convair which from my travel book is not that expensive,has a pool, a resturant, free breakfast, room service, and a good location. And it is nice, BUT to my suprise they are under construction! The pool is outside, small, and un-usable...they are re-doing the lobby and the pool area is a holding area for their tools and stuff. Which sucks! The resturant is nice though and the breakfast spread is big and also nice. My room is also big and very comfortable, with a nice firm mattress.And the location is good right next to the main shopping area, and the bus to the Foz de Iguazu is right on the corner.I still might change hotels though...tonight the resturant has pasta night though... :)Oh and they have WiFi too! Which I didn´t know, otherwise I would have brought my laptop...instead of being in the internet place listening to bad spanish rap...Ciudad de Este basically sprung up during the creation of the Itupau dam, which is also right near by. Brazilians and Argentians come here for good deals on a large variety of goods. Yesterday, I walked around. And the city is basically like 34th or 125th times ten. It is literally rows and rows of stores, and covered markets selling a ton of the same crap over and over again.It´s a little insane.The city is very hilly unlike Asuncion, and kind of like San Francisco...there are some big hills! But at the top of the hills are very pretty views of the rio Paraguay and Brasil, and probably Argentina.I´m not sure where the Argentina Brazil border is, but I know it close...and apparently the best views of the falls are on their sides. During my walk I went into a random spot for some food. The pollo frito was not that good but the waitress was really nice. And she started to ask me a lot questions. This has happened to me 5 or 6 times now...where shops keepers or whoever are like... aren´t you paraguaya or you´re not paraguaya? And they give me a perplexed look...lol. Because I guess I look like them, but obviously when I speak I don´t sound like them at all. I didn´t really notice the accent until I went to Argentina and came back.And Argentine speak very differently!Daniela who is from Cordoba has a different accent, and her brother in laws friends who were from Buenos Aires spoke differntly also. Then when I came back I realized the Paraguayans speak diffently too, especially the ones from Asuncion. I think that is why I have a harder time understanding Leis and Karina.They are both born and grew up in the city.I don´t know how to explain what it sounds like...but its different.Anyway, back to the waitress who´s name is Sandra.She has a brother who is working in NY. I ended up telling her my whole little story.And she said she knew some Miranda´s and said she would ask them if knew of an Adolfina from Hernandarias. Which was cool and very nice of her. She seemed normal and around my age too, so we´ll see what happens.She gave me her number and I told her what hotel I was staying at. It´s a start at least, becuase I honestly did not even know where I was going to start and look for my birth family.Her sister brought her niece over the the resturant and I chatted with them for a bit then I headed out.Her niece was really cute and fat. Then I walked around getting a little lost for awhile, and thats when I walked up one of those big hills and saw the river. I was trying to get down to the river to get a better view and take some pics, and just when I was about to head back to the hotel and almost got run over by bikers and truck I saw the bridge! It´s called the friendship bride, or aduana puente de la amistad.It´s the friendship bridge between Paraguay and Brasil...so I walked to Brazil! It was really cool and fun. There are these guys on motorcycles that can take you over for a small fee. But I prefered to walk its better for my health, the environment, and my mental state...because motorcycles frankly scare me! I didn´t want to be holding on for dear life to some random man. One of them actually grabbed my arm to offer me a ride and I was so pissed, I gave him one of my infamous dirty looks and yelled no at him. Then the other guys stopped asking me too. Plus there were plenty of other people walking over too. The view was beautiful, and it was a nice sunny day...my midday it had warmed up to the 60´s. On either side of the bridge its lush greenery, and the river winds around like a snake.There is an island on one side of the brige and I wondered who´s was it.Because there was a marker in the middle of the river at separated Brazil from Paraguay.I took lots of pics :) Crossing over is nto too formal, you don´t even need to have your passport stamped. I didn´t stay in Brazil for long anyway, it looks the same as the Paraguayan side except its in Portugese, and you have to pay in Reals, and its an hour ahead which is funny because its like 10 maybe 15 walk and you´re and hour a head. I walked back on the other side of the bridge and took more pics. It was beautiful. And that is actually one thing I remember...from when I was young everything being very green. Then I went back to the hotel to rest and shower.I watched the General´s Daughter, which is very a disturbing movie, if you haven´t seen it. It was good but distubring.Then I ordered room service, I love room service :) hehe. Today I´m going to take the bus the the Foz de Iguazu...I´m waiting until it warms up a bit. I think this winter is especially cold, because Wilma told me it rains and its cold for a few days and then its back to the 70´s-80´s. But that has not been the case the past few weeks.Even on the news this morning they mentioned donating warm clothes for students, who don´t have them.Because a lot of people especially poorer people don´t own that many clothes period let alone sweaters or coats.Luckily, I packed some. When I first got hear I thought I packed to many sweater but I think I packed just enough.I actually even bought a cheap hoody last week. On a side note, there are a lot of Asians in the city.A lot of Japanese,Taiwanese, and Chinese.So, maybe I am part Asian!lol.I just helped this Japanese girl on Skype.She spoke no Spanish, but English.Maybe they have decent Asian food here, I´m going to ask her if she knows a good Japanese place.Anyway, that´s it for now.Ciao